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Facebook: Bringing People Together and Ending Relationships Since 2004

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

As many of you know, and I openly admit, I have committed all of these Facebook annoyances at one time or another. However, I feel that I have matured in my social media ways and am ready to talk about how truly annoying facebook can be. Let’s discuss the narcissism and strange behavior it brings out in people, and the good stuff….

Here we go ~

The check-in–

Let me start this blog by admitting that I was ‘this’ person at one. The person that ‘checks in’ at every location they enter. Example, the gym (like anybody really cared that I was working out for the 24th time that week) Well….that’s a lie, I rarely work out twice a week but you get my drift. Or ‘checking in’ at the hair salon. What? You don’t want to know that I’m getting my grey hair touched up for the third time this month? For those of you who aren’t on facebook – ‘checking in’ is informing everybody in the world exactly what location you are at and writing a commentary above it. For example; people actually ‘check-in’ at home and say something like, “Back to the #HaighHouse and contrary to the BS Folgers has been feeding us for years, the best part of waking up is actually going back to sleep. Goodnight.” And then 102 of this person’s closest friends ‘like’ the check-in and status. Now, to be totally honest, I do still check in occasionally. I had dinner with Aimee at Flemings last night and decided that yes, the world may want to know that I am eating a steak with my OC bestie and thought you would all certainly want to see our picture as well. See, I still have my moments also.

Vague-booking – Another pet peeve of mine is the intentional vague facebook status update that prompts friends to wonder what in the world is going on with you.

Example status;

Lisa is; “wondering if it is all worth it… and thinking that was a bad idea” causing very concerned facebook friends to call and ask each other, “have you talked to Lisa? She’s vague-booking again…. I haven’t seen her ‘check-in’ anywhere in a while. I better “poke” her and see if she responds.

The bikini shot – If you are over, lets say 30 years old, Please do not post a ‘selfie’ in your bikini. I don’t care how many ‘check-ins’ at the gym, hard work and dedication got you your bikini body. If you are a grown woman posing in a bikini for solicited ‘likes’ —- I will assume you are going through a mid-life crisis.

‘Liking’ your own status – This is sort of redundant, don’t you think? We already know that you think you are hilarious, you posted it, remember? Liking your own status is the equivalent of high-fiving yourself in public. True story.

Changing your relationship status – I have seen in a 24 hour period, let’s say Bob, going from ‘married to ‘single’ to ‘it’s complicated’ to ‘single. Really Bob? All of your facebook friends now know you are actually just ‘un-stable’. Vague-booking usually follows the relationship status change….

Drunk-booking – I would urge you to stop this, but it’s just such great entertainment. So carry on…

On a more serious note, Facebook is commonly used to intentionally hurt people. People say and do some pretty crappy things over Facebook because it’s easy to hide behind the computer screen. This actually just happened to me last week by someone I once considered a dear friend, and I was devastated when it was brought to my attention. I will not repeat the story, that would be stooping to her level. Although, many of you already know about this incident because you called me after I was vague blogging about it…..

I’m joking about most of the above annoyances. This is America…if you want to like your own status, that’s awesome. If you want to take pictures of your food and post them, I will even throw you a ‘like’. Food is good. Sometimes it’s great when people ‘check-in at a place so that you know where not to go :-) There really are many great aspects of Facebook. Keeping in touch with family and friends, re-connecting with people you would have never found, new connections, sharing pictures. I have found Facebook to be fabulous for business, etc., but, it has also made me really aware at just how narcissistic it can make people. Remember, most people only post the good stuff. “Just came back from a 15 mile run, having my 10 closest friends over after I do some quick yoga poses to talk about our trip to Sedona while sipping champagne all night. Life is good.” Leaving us readers thinking, Wow, my life totally sucks…I’m at home alone, heating up old chili and hoping a good Lifetime movie is on tonight. Social media posts are generally never an accurate depiction of a person’s life . On Facebook people can be whoever they choose to be. Most people don’t talk about the un-glamorous stuff —unless they’re vague-booking about it.